Opinion

It's no accident that girls are leading the climate movement

By Niamh O'Connor Smith

October 10, 2019 — 11.57pm

I was sitting around a campfire at the beach when I started organising a strike for the first time. Six months later I was stepping onto the stage to MC the largest climate strike in Australian history – Melbourne’s September 20 School Strike for Climate.

Tens of thousands stood in solidarity with Climate Action then marched through the streets of Melbourne.Credit:Chris Hopkins

It was exhilarating yet nerve-racking, getting ready to speak to the sea of people in front of me, all there because they care about climate action and climate justice. It brought me such a powerful feeling, of hope and courage, that together we will create a safe future for everyone.

School Strike for Climate started with just one girl: Greta Thunberg. Now it is a huge movement; 7 million people strong. In Australia, Milou, Harriet and Callum started the strikes in my home town, Castlemaine.

You may have noticed some of the key players in this movement are girls. The person who started it all is a girl. Two of the three people who got the strikes going in Australia are girls. This empowers me and fills me with courage for the future of girls in leadership.

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All over the world girls are leading this movement. But we are not alone. And we need everyone, regardless of age, gender and nationality to stand with us to call out the people in power for their inaction; to show the world we need climate justice action.

Getting everyone involved is the key to the movement. When more people get up and strike, it makes our collective voice stronger.

Girls possess a valuable quality of encouraging people to use their voices for what they believe in and empowering others around them. Not every girl has to lead, but through the many conversations they have every day, they spread the message and make people believe in a power everyone possesses inside of them.

Spreading courage and hope and being able to instil this power in others is an asset girls bring to this movement. With this strength, the climate strikes will only become more powerful.

Castlemaine schoolkids strike for the environment.

As the movement grows, it will reach more people and our government will have to listen and take action.

Often people come to the strikes calling for a safe green future. This is a major reason many choose to strike. A lot of them don’t realise people are already suffering the effects of the climate crisis. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Pacific islanders are on the front lines of this crisis, facing rising sea levels, worse storms and crop failures. That is why climate justice is an integral part of School Strike for Climate in Australia. The strikes can raise the awareness of the hundreds of thousands who attend.

I must admit it’s frustrating when adults in positions of power tell us to go back to school, when they won’t listen to the science. If they took the advice of the world’s best climate scientists, we wouldn’t have to take days off school to strike.

As the strikes have grown in size, some politicians and commentators have chosen to criticise and bully. This will not stop us. In fact, it makes us stronger. With support from those around us, we will continue to fight through their torments because it means we are winning.

They say we as a nation are doing enough to tackle the climate crisis, while at the same time they are approving new coal mines and subsidising fossil fuels with taxpayers' money.

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Our government is clearly not doing enough. We see the broken structure that is letting our planet die. As young people and girls, we are in a unique position to change the system, and so we strike.

Then they say that as students we should value our education. We do. We value our education very highly. As organisers, we dedicate many hours of our free time to making these strikes happen.

We make a choice to sacrifice our education on strike days because as students we don’t have the right to vote, so this is a way to make sure people in power hear our voices.

Everyone has a voice. For some of us, it is harder to use that voice and harder to make it heard. But when we band together, we can use our voices to fight for what is right. To fight against the injustice that is being dealt to this planet and its people.

As a girl, I have stepped up as a leader, and so can you. You can be the one stepping on the stage, making your voice heard and changing the world.

Niamh O'Connor Smith is one of the original organisers of the Australian climate strikes.